Although the GeForce 8800 GTX is best suited to high-end systems, it can be utilized quite well on slightly slower processors. Of course we are not talking about slow processors here, in fact quite the opposite. However, the 1600x1200 resolution showed almost no performance variations between the eleven configurations with the FSAA and Aniso settings enabled. The only game to show noticeable performance differences when using lower clocked or lower performance processors was X3: Reunion.

Keep in mind that the GeForce 8800 GTX does cost roughly 70% more than the cheaper GTS alternative. With that in mind, justifying this cost will most likely be quite difficult for many, given the GTX proved to be no more than 40% faster! Furthermore, the GTS provided perfectly playable performance with extremely high quality visual settings enabled. For this reason it is obvious why the GeForce 8800 GTS has become the number one choice among gamers at the moment. Now with an even cheaper $300 US version featuring 320MB of memory, the GTS is going to get a whole lot more inviting.

The more popular games, such as Company of Heroes, F.E.A.R and Prey, showed almost no difference in performance. In fact some cases there were no difference in performance when testing these graphics cards on various AMD and Intel processors. Amazingly the E6300 was no slower than the overclocked E6700 in these games. Of course there will be quite a few games that will see processor bottlenecking becoming a problem, but these three games are not them. Even so, X3: Reunion saw the Athlon64 X2 3800+ deliver highly playable performance at 1600x1200 with FSAA 16x + Aniso 16x enabled and was able to make full use of the GeForce 8800 GTS.

Therefore, regardless of the processor being used, it is important to have these FSAA and Aniso settings maxed out in any present day game. What is even more important is the resolution you choose to play at. Obviously 19” LCD owners are not going to use even a fraction of the performance that could other wise be obtained on a 22”+ LCD. In fact, users are really going to want around 30” of LCD real-estate in order to put their 8800 GTX to full use. So while the processor will be an important component in some games, the LCD monitor will be very important in all games. Again this is another reason why the GTS is a better option, as it delivers all the performance you could possibly want at a 1280x1024 resolution.

Although the GeForce 8800 GTX appeared to have reached its limits in Company of Heroes when using the Core 2 Duo E6700 processor, it was still rendering an average of 70fps. While you only need an average of 30fps in Company of Heroes to achieve highly playable performance, the GeForce 8800 GTX was able to spit out 70fps at 1600x1200 with FSAA 16x + Aniso 16x enabled. This means that a resolution of at least 2048x1536 is required in order to make better use of the awesome power of the 8800 GTX. At this resolution you could expect an even smaller performance margin between the AMD and Intel processors, as the graphics card becomes more of a bottleneck.

Reviewed By Steven Walton